Matsyapurana 7.48

7.48

tasmāttvamanayā vṛttyā garbhe 'sminyatnamācara
svastyastu te gamiṣyāmi tathetyuktastayā punaḥ //

At the conclusion of the sacrifice, Kaśyapa performed the purificatory ceremonies to facilitate conception, and began to counsel his wife how a pregnant woman should live.—36. He advised Diti to remain in that hermitage for a century and not to take any meals in the morning and evening. Continuing his advice he said that a pregnant woman should not often go and sit at the root of a tree, nor should she sit on a broom-stick or a pestle. She should not enter or plunge herself in deep waters, and should also avoid living in a solitary house, sitting upon an ant-hill, and also depression of mind. She should not write by her nails, charcoal or ashes, on the floor, and should avoid much sleeping and labour. She should also abstain from sitting in a place covered with coal, chaff, and bones, as well as from quarreling and yawning. She should not keep her hair unkempt, nor her person unclean, nor should she sleep with her head towards the north. She should never doff her garments, and should not allow her mind to be afflicted or her feet to remain wet. She should avoid much laughing and the use of inauspicious words. She should serve her preceptor, do pious deeds, and bathe in lukewarm medicated water. She should take great care of herself in every way, should wear fine ornaments, worship Vāstu (household deity), keep herself pleased, and devotedly serve her husband. She should give alms to the poor and worship Gaurī (the wife of Śiva) on the 3rd day of a bright fortnight. A woman and, particularly one who is in the family way, if she follow such a course, begets amiable, valiant, and long-lived children; otherwise there is always a danger of miscarriage. "Therefore O beloved! follow the directions just explained to you. May you be blessed. I am now going to practise penances".—37-48.